Keenan Cornelius - The Founder of Legion Jiu-Jitsu & BJJ World Champion

Keenan Cornelius is an American Black Belt who is multiple times world champion in various championships. He trained at different academies (BJ Penn Academy, Team Lloyd Irvin, and Atos Jiu-Jitsu) and achieved his Black Belt from Coach Andre Galvao. Now he is running his own academy named Legion Jiu-Jitsu along with an online coaching website Jiu-Jitsu X.

Keenan started training in martial arts at the age of 4 under his father, Tom Callos who was a practitioner of martial arts. Tom Callos initially started teaching striking martial arts to his son. But Cornelius was not interested in martial arts so he left the training.  

At the age of 14, Keenan resumed martial arts training but this time he started with grappling martial arts. It was his father who introduced this son to the grappling world. 

Keenan’s father was a great fan of martial arts and his efforts worked when Cornelius showed interest in BJJ in his teenage years.

His father was a Blue Belt and familiar with BJJ techniques and skills. He started a gym for Cornelius and his friends. In this gym young grapplers took one or two classes weekly. They all were big fans of UFC at that time.

At the age of 15, Cornelius became seriously interested in BJJ. He joined a gym where Cassio Werneck was coaching. He started visiting this academy but not very regularly due to the long distance from his place. He visited this academy for two or three days a month.

In Werneck’s place, Cornelius met with Andris Brunovskis, a big fan of BJJ who motivated Cornelius to polish his skills. Andris Brunovskis played a big role in Cornelius’s BJJ career.

Cornelius’s father took him to Penn Academy located in Hilo on a weekend. Cornelius was a big fan of BJ Penn. BJ Penn inspired him a lot. He enjoyed his visit to BJ Penn. Resultantly, he joined a college at Hilo to get regular training at BJ Penn.

Keenan spent his two years at BJ Penn and achieved his Purple Belt in this academy. 

BJ Penn played a great role in Keenan’s career but the academy did not own an all-time Black Belt coach and also did not offer Gi training.

During his training at BJ Penn Cornelius met with his friend Andris Brunovskis who, at that time, was training in Team Lloyd Irvin. He invited Cornelius to join TLI in Maryland. Keenan found TLI a better place for his training and started his journey with TLI.

Keenan’s skills blossomed at TLI and he won many championships in his journey with this academy. He was raised in the sky of the BJJ world as a great American competitor in the colored belt division. He was famous as the most proficient Brown Belt grappler of his time.

In 2013, Lloyd Irvin and his academy were set under investigations of gang rape of a student of the same academy. After two months, one of his teammates from TLI also appeared on the surface revealing that Llyod Irvis was also involved in the sexual harassment of a female student. 

This negative news about TLI pursued some top competitors to leave the team. Keenan Cornelius was also one of them.  

Cornelius joined Atos Jiu-Jitsu after leaving TLI and started his career under coach Andre Galvao. Cornelius impressed Andre Galvao with his BJJ skills. After a few months, Galvao awarded him the Black Belt in September 2014.

Keenan continued his training with Atos Jiu-Jitsu till 2019. Keenan left AJJ due to a severe clash with Coach Andre Galvao. Andre Galvao was a traditional master and refused to take him in his class due to his poor time management. It was the time when both BJJ experts respectfully parted ways.  

When Keenan had a clash with Andre Galvao, he was preparing for an upcoming IBJJF event. After leaving AJJ, Keenan joined different gyms to continue his training.

At the end of 2019, Keenan launched his own Academy, named Legion Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego, California. 

In 2016, Keenan started training many Jiu-Jitsu fans digitally through a website This website is working with X Jiu-Jitsu to help many BJJ practitioners in learning BJJ techniques online.

At the age of 15 when Keenan was practicing in his father’s gym, Mr. Carlos Valente visited his hometown to conduct a seminar about BJJ. Carlos found some hidden talents in this young grappler and upgraded him to Green Belt.  

After a great performance and achieving a silver medal at the NAGA event, Keenan was promoted to the purple belt under BJ Penn.

A few months after joining Atos Jiu-Jitsu, Keenan was promoted to Black Belt under Coach Andre Galvao on 14th September 2013.

This fight was held between Keenan Cornelius and Joshua Bowlin under the Heavyweight category in San Francisco Open 2018.

In this bout, Keenan showcased his outstanding skills. In this match, he used his opponent’s Gi as a weapon. From the beginning, Bowlin applied guards and took Joshua down. He passed Keenana’s guards many times. Keenan did not hold on to any choke.

At the end of the match, Keenan took advantage of the loose arm of his opponent and submitted Bowlin with an armbar. 

This fight was between Keenan Cornelius and Dean Lister on the mat of Polaris Pro Grappling Championship in 2015. This was a memorable match as both the competitors had a fabulous fight history. Cornelius is a Black Belt with a huge submission record. On the other hand, Lister showcased amazing leg lock skills.

At the start of the match, Cornelius experienced a Kimura grip and managed to escape. But he cannot hold this position for a long time.

Cornelius did not stand the leg attack from Lister again and Lister took him down this time. Lister tried many times for a Heel Hook. But Cornelius managed to stand up and took down Lister. Match ended up with Lister’s submission by Reversed Triangle. 

This bout was between Keenan Cornelius and Victor Honorio in the 2018 European Championship.

At the start of the fight, Victor took Keena Down and tried to apply wrist lock and knee lock consistently but Keenan managed to escape and got two points. Victor again took down Keenan but this time Keenan had his trick to get the submission. He used Victor’s Gi and did not let him do any other attacks.

At the end of the fight, Keenan Cornelius submitted Victor Honorio via Omoplata submission.  

This bout was held between Keena Cornelius and Mathias Luna on the mat of the European championship 2020.

At the start of the match Keenan put him down but Mathias countered by pulling Cornelius down with both legs. When he failed to do so, he tried to apply a single-leg Kimura. Cornelius actively escaped from both techniques.

At the end of the match, Cornelius took Mathias’s back and submitted him with RNC.

Keenan Cornelius vs Gordon Ryan - ADCC 2017 World Championships

Keenan Cornelius vs Mahamed Aly / Pan Championship 2018

Keenan Cornelius vs Victor Honorio / European Championship 2018 

Photo credit: @keenancornelius , @hyperflyasia